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Folk singer wary of Coen Brothers' portrayal

Jim Glover, the male half of the '60s-era folk duo Jim and Jean, is played by Justin Timberlake in the Coen Brothers' fictionalized accounting of the old Greenwich Village scene, "Inside Llewyn Davis." The critically acclaimed film opens Friday at Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota. Herald-Tribune staff photo by Billy Cox.

Published: Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 10:57 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 10:57 a.m.

BRANDON - In this "Twilight Zone" of a life forever clouded by the murder of President Kennedy, Jim Glover will watch the latest weird chapter unfold on the big screen this weekend. That's when he anticipates seeing a small sliver of his story twisted unrecognizably by Justin Timberlake, with Carey Mulligan co-starring as Glover's deceased ex-wife Jean Ray.

"They may say it's just a coincidence," says Glover of "Inside Llewyn Davis," the critically acclaimed new film from directors Ethan and Joel Coen, "but come on. I'm all over the Internet, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Google. All you have to do is look up Jim and Jean, Phil Ochs, JFK, Allen Dulles — you'll find a book's worth of material that I've written about for the last 20 years."

"Inside Llewyn Davis," which opens locally Friday, is the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers' take on the Greenwich Village folk music scene circa 1961. Applauded by critics as a masterpiece, its title character is allegedly inspired by the late Dave Van Ronk, the burly, gregarious contemporary of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and a Who's Who of folk icons.

Also prominently featured is a fictitious couple, the Timberlake/Mulligan pairing as Jim and Jean Berkey, who emerge as friends of Llewyn Davis, the eponymous reprobate of an artist. But as the surviving half of the real-life duo — known simply as Jim & Jean in the 1960s — Jim Glover is wary of the film, which has been slammed by many folkie aficionados.

New York singer songwriter Christine Lavin, for instance, said her hopes of the movie reviving popular interest in her favorite genre were dashed when the Davis/Van Ronk character was portrayed as "a doofus." Jim & Jean, she added, "look like idiots."

The Sarasota connection

At 71, Jim Glover is a longtime fixture with the Sarasota Folk Club crowd.

The former Siesta Key resident commutes at least once a week from his home in Brandon to jam with friends at local cafes and residences in Sarasota.

Although his mildly unsteady hands don't pluck the strings the way they used to — "central tremors," he laments, "really bad for finger picking" — Glover is booked for the Sarasota Folk Festival in March.

But the biggest reason for Glover's sometimes bi-weekly visits to Sarasota is yet another Jean — Jean Hewitt, "my sweetie," he calls her, for the last five years or so.

Hewitt is a Sarasota Folk Club member who hosts regular hootenannies for musicians at her home. Lest there be any doubt: "I'm the Jean that doesn't sing." In fact, she adds, she has no musical talent at all. "I'm lucky to play a CD."

She also admits she had never heard of Jim & Jean prior to meeting Jim Glover. So here's the skinny:

Glover's original Jean — Jean Ray — died in 2007. They met in Greenwich Village in 1961, formed Jim & Jean, married in 1963, and were divorced in 1969.

Although clearly never as commercially successful as the likes of Peter Paul & Mary, Jim & Jean recorded three albums and appeared on variety shows hosted by Andy Williams and Art Linkletter.

Glover says the house-crasher at their Village apartment wasn't Dave Van Ronk, but Phil Ochs, the troubled but gifted anti-war troubadour on the front lines of many '60s protest movements.

Glover, a Cleveland native, taught Ochs to play guitar when the two were roommates at Ohio State University in 1960. They formed a short-lived duet called The Singing Leftists.

Glover dropped out of OSU in 1961 to "make a name for myself" in New York. Ochs would follow Glover to the Village a year later.

Highly politicized, having penned a caustic tune about the Bay of Pigs invasion shortly after its dismal failure in 1961, Ochs' activities would eventually grab the attention of the FBI, which went on to compile a dossier nearly 500 pages thick. Ochs took his life in 1976 at age 35.

Glover maintains he was under surveillance as well, even approached by federal authorities to spy on his parents. His father, Hugh Glover, worked with labor leader and Communist Party USA chair Gus Hall in the 1950s. "He was a 'fellow traveler,' to be accurate, which meant he didn't have a card," Glover says.

"This (surveillance) goes back to before I was born. My mom's folks were Bolsheviks from Belarus. That's where Minsk was, that's where Oswald met Marina, right? Belarus."

'We're all under surveillance'

This is where Glover's tale gets really hairy.

In a 2-1/2-hour chat peppered with enough famous names, dates, places and shadowy intrigues for the Oliver Stone treatment, Glover says he avoided writing the sorts of political songs that made Ochs famous "because I didn't need any more heat."

For the past 50 years, Glover has been attempting to piece together the fragments of the Kennedy assassination.

Among other things, Glover says he was forewarned of the "coup," and that Ochs — hoping to play along with a secret spying program in order to "fight the war machine from within" — was in Dealey Plaza when the fatal shots rang out.

Glover says the "national security state" is so firmly entrenched, it no longer matters who's running the White House.

He cites the Obama administration's efforts last month to keep the full CIA report on the Bay of Pigs classified as part of the continuum.

"Back then, it was more of a face-to-face thing," he says of domestic spying 50 years ago. "Now, we're all under surveillance."

In short, Glover says his own cinematic version of the early Village folkies would've focused more on the swirling political subterfuge at a time when socially conscious lyrics were perceived in many corners as an internal security threat.

"They've just turned it into a soap opera," he says.

Still, Glover's remake would retain some of the Coen brothers' original choices.

"I would ask Justin Timberlake to play me. Just to keep it consistent," Glover laughs hugely. "He's a good musician, a good actor. But I could see why my story would kind of confuse him and make him wonder why they didn't fill him in on all this stuff, you know what I mean?"

Glover got wind of the "Inside Llewyn Davis" production back in 2011, but his efforts to reach the Coens were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, down in Sarasota, Jean Hewitt finds herself overwhelmed by Glover's fixation on the Kennedy assassination.

"Well, I hear about that all the time, and his stories all seem to be true," Hewitt says. Although none of that, or the real Jim & Jean, will be in the film, "I'm dying to see it."

The Herald-Tribune sent an inquiry to the Coens' talent agency about the role of Jim Glover and Jean Ray in their creative choices.

<p><em>BRANDON</em> - In this "Twilight Zone" of a life forever clouded by the murder of President Kennedy, Jim Glover will watch the latest weird chapter unfold on the big screen this weekend. That's when he anticipates seeing a small sliver of his story twisted unrecognizably by Justin Timberlake, with Carey Mulligan co-starring as Glover's deceased ex-wife Jean Ray.</p><p>"They may say it's just a coincidence," says Glover of "Inside Llewyn Davis," the critically acclaimed new film from directors Ethan and Joel Coen, "but come on. I'm all over the Internet, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Google. All you have to do is look up Jim and Jean, Phil Ochs, JFK, Allen Dulles — you'll find a book's worth of material that I've written about for the last 20 years."</p><p>"Inside Llewyn Davis," which opens locally Friday, is the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers' take on the Greenwich Village folk music scene circa 1961. Applauded by critics as a masterpiece, its title character is allegedly inspired by the late Dave Van Ronk, the burly, gregarious contemporary of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and a Who's Who of folk icons.</p><p>Also prominently featured is a fictitious couple, the Timberlake/Mulligan pairing as Jim and Jean Berkey, who emerge as friends of Llewyn Davis, the eponymous reprobate of an artist. But as the surviving half of the real-life duo — known simply as Jim & Jean in the 1960s — Jim Glover is wary of the film, which has been slammed by many folkie aficionados.</p><p>New York singer songwriter Christine Lavin, for instance, said her hopes of the movie reviving popular interest in her favorite genre were dashed when the Davis/Van Ronk character was portrayed as "a doofus." Jim & Jean, she added, "look like idiots."</p><p><b>The Sarasota connection </b></p><p>At 71, Jim Glover is a longtime fixture with the Sarasota Folk Club crowd.</p><p>The former Siesta Key resident commutes at least once a week from his home in Brandon to jam with friends at local cafes and residences in Sarasota.</p><p>Although his mildly unsteady hands don't pluck the strings the way they used to — "central tremors," he laments, "really bad for finger picking" — Glover is booked for the Sarasota Folk Festival in March.</p><p>But the biggest reason for Glover's sometimes bi-weekly visits to Sarasota is yet another Jean — Jean Hewitt, "my sweetie," he calls her, for the last five years or so.</p><p>Hewitt is a Sarasota Folk Club member who hosts regular hootenannies for musicians at her home. Lest there be any doubt: "I'm the Jean that doesn't sing." In fact, she adds, she has no musical talent at all. "I'm lucky to play a CD."</p><p>She also admits she had never heard of Jim & Jean prior to meeting Jim Glover. So here's the skinny:</p><p>Glover's original Jean — Jean Ray — died in 2007. They met in Greenwich Village in 1961, formed Jim & Jean, married in 1963, and were divorced in 1969.</p><p>Although clearly never as commercially successful as the likes of Peter Paul & Mary, Jim & Jean recorded three albums and appeared on variety shows hosted by Andy Williams and Art Linkletter.</p><p>Glover says the house-crasher at their Village apartment wasn't Dave Van Ronk, but Phil Ochs, the troubled but gifted anti-war troubadour on the front lines of many '60s protest movements.</p><p>Glover, a Cleveland native, taught Ochs to play guitar when the two were roommates at Ohio State University in 1960. They formed a short-lived duet called The Singing Leftists.</p><p>Glover dropped out of OSU in 1961 to "make a name for myself" in New York. Ochs would follow Glover to the Village a year later. </p><p>Highly politicized, having penned a caustic tune about the Bay of Pigs invasion shortly after its dismal failure in 1961, Ochs' activities would eventually grab the attention of the FBI, which went on to compile a dossier nearly 500 pages thick. Ochs took his life in 1976 at age 35.</p><p>Glover maintains he was under surveillance as well, even approached by federal authorities to spy on his parents. His father, Hugh Glover, worked with labor leader and Communist Party USA chair Gus Hall in the 1950s. "He was a 'fellow traveler,' to be accurate, which meant he didn't have a card," Glover says.</p><p>"This (surveillance) goes back to before I was born. My mom's folks were Bolsheviks from Belarus. That's where Minsk was, that's where Oswald met Marina, right? Belarus."</p><p><b>'We're all under surveillance'</b></p><p>This is where Glover's tale gets really hairy.</p><p>In a 2-1/2-hour chat peppered with enough famous names, dates, places and shadowy intrigues for the Oliver Stone treatment, Glover says he avoided writing the sorts of political songs that made Ochs famous "because I didn't need any more heat."</p><p>For the past 50 years, Glover has been attempting to piece together the fragments of the Kennedy assassination.</p><p>Among other things, Glover says he was forewarned of the "coup," and that Ochs — hoping to play along with a secret spying program in order to "fight the war machine from within" — was in Dealey Plaza when the fatal shots rang out.</p><p>Glover says the "national security state" is so firmly entrenched, it no longer matters who's running the White House.</p><p>He cites the Obama administration's efforts last month to keep the full CIA report on the Bay of Pigs classified as part of the continuum.</p><p>"Back then, it was more of a face-to-face thing," he says of domestic spying 50 years ago. "Now, we're all under surveillance."</p><p>In short, Glover says his own cinematic version of the early Village folkies would've focused more on the swirling political subterfuge at a time when socially conscious lyrics were perceived in many corners as an internal security threat.</p><p>"They've just turned it into a soap opera," he says.</p><p>Still, Glover's remake would retain some of the Coen brothers' original choices.</p><p>"I would ask Justin Timberlake to play me. Just to keep it consistent," Glover laughs hugely. "He's a good musician, a good actor. But I could see why my story would kind of confuse him and make him wonder why they didn't fill him in on all this stuff, you know what I mean?"</p><p>Glover got wind of the "Inside Llewyn Davis" production back in 2011, but his efforts to reach the Coens were unsuccessful.</p><p>Meanwhile, down in Sarasota, Jean Hewitt finds herself overwhelmed by Glover's fixation on the Kennedy assassination.</p><p>"Well, I hear about that all the time, and his stories all seem to be true," Hewitt says. Although none of that, or the real Jim & Jean, will be in the film, "I'm dying to see it."</p><p>The Herald-Tribune sent an inquiry to the Coens' talent agency about the role of Jim Glover and Jean Ray in their creative choices.</p><p>There has been no reply.</p><p><empty></p>